1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal apparatus, information service center, transmitting system, and a transmitting method, in which a data is served from the information service center to the terminal apparatus where it is stored once and a useless or unnecessary data is deleted from the data stored in the terminal apparatus, an equivalent exchange rate or reimbursement rate is calculated the deleted useless data, and when a new data is next purchased by the terminal apparatus from the information service center, the served next data is priced through calculation by discounting for the deleted useless data or charging nothing for the next served data based on the equivalent exchange rate.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, the so-called Karaoke playing systems are very popular in which a user sings to the accompaniment of a favorite Karaoke music (background music)selected by him or her and reproduced by a Karaoke player. The Karaoke player is normally adapted such that a background music (Karaoke music) reproduced by the Karaoke player and a song sung by a user to the accompaniment of his selected background music and supplied to the player are mixed and provided as an output of the player. The currently available typical Karaoke systems include a stand-alone type system, prevailing extremely widely, in which an audio signal as a background music and a video signal providing a background scene suiting the music are reproduced and given from a recording medium such as an optical disc or the like, and a communication Karaoke system in which a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) data as background music transmitted from a server at an information service center, received and stored by a terminal apparatus, and a MIDI data for a selected background music is reproduced at the terminal apparatus.
Of the above Karaoke systems, the communication Karaoke system employed in the Karaoke stores is such that a contact is included between each Karaoke shop as a user or subscriber of a Karaoke data serving system provided by a host station as an information service center to distribute or serve to the Karaoke shop a Karaoke data requested by the Karaoke shop for service or over a public telephone line or similar at each such a request.
The aforementioned public telephone lines may include those using ISDN (integrated services digital network) or modem and those using a communications satellite.
In the communication Karaoke system, when a new music, for example, is released, the host station has to prepare a Karaoke data composed of a MIDI data for the released new music for supply over the public telephone line to each Karaoke shop. The currently available communication Karaoke system can serve a Karaoke data of a newly released music very soon after the release to a high satisfaction of the users or subscribers of the Karaoke system.
In the above-mentioned prevailing stand-alone type Karaoke system, however, a service of a background music (Karaoke music) is completed when the music is supplied to a user having requested it, and cannot be moved in the time and space domains. Also, in a Karaoke system such as Internet Karaoke system using a transmitting system, when a user or subscriber of the system having downloaded a background or Karaoke music data from the Internet Karaoke system does not want to enjoy it any more, he or she cannot return the downloaded music data to the information service center.
In the above-mentioned conventional music service system, when the user does not want to enjoy such a downloaded music data which has become a hackneyed one to him, the music data will be useless to him but he can only erase it. In such a case, he will think that he paid too much money for the music data.
In the second-hand music record disc market, the used record discs are sold and bought. This market system cannot have successfully been applied to the music data service system based on the above-mentioned communications means. There have been many difficulties for this application. More particularly, the conventional music data service system incurs a troublesome allotment of a service fee since it is not free from the problem of copyright, law and a security is involved in the money transfer over the data transfer system.
Accordingly, the present invention has an object to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art by providing an information service center and a transmitting system, in which a data can be served to each terminal apparatus, namely, each user, at a low price because the data may be returned to a data server and with a high security because no troublesome money transfer is done.
The above object can be attained by providing a terminal apparatus which receives a data served from an information service center and stores the received data, comprising:
a receiving means for receiving a data served from the information service center;
a first memory means for storing the data received by the receiving means;
an operation means operable to direct the terminal apparatus to return a useless one of the data stored in the first memory means to the information service center; and
a second memory means for storing an information of reproducing frequency of each of individual data stored in the first memory means;
when the useless data is deleted from the data stored in the first memory means, a new data served and downloaded subsequently being priced through calculation by subtracting for the deleted useless data or charging nothing for the new downloaded data.
The above object can also be attained by providing an information service center which accumulates a plurality of data and serves to a terminal apparatus a data requested from the terminal apparatus, comprising:
an authenticating means for authenticating the terminal apparatus connected to the information service center;
a receiving means for receiving an information transmitted from the terminal apparatus authenticated by the authenticating means and which is related to the return of a useless data in the terminal apparatus;
a calculation means for calculating an equivalent exchange rate from the information received by the receiving means; and
an accounting means for accounting a new data purchased subsequently by the terminal apparatus from the information service center by discounting for the returned useless data or charging nothing for the next purchased data based on the equivalent exchange rate.
The above object can also be attained by providing an information service center which accumulates a plurality of data and serves to a terminal apparatus a data requested from the terminal apparatus, comprising:
an authenticating means for authenticating the terminal apparatus connected to the information service center;
a receiving means for receiving an information transmitted from the terminal apparatus authenticated by the authenticating means and which is related to the return of a useless data in the terminal apparatus; and
an accounting means for accounting a new data purchased subsequently by the terminal apparatus from the information service center by discounting for the returned useless data or charging nothing for the next purchased data based on an equivalent exchange rate calculated from the information received by the receiving means and related to the return of the useless data in the terminal apparatus.
The above object can also be attained by providing a transmitting system having a data server and at least one of terminal apparatuses,
the terminal apparatus comprising:
a receiving means for receiving a data served from the information service center;
a first memory means for storing the data received by the receiving means;
an operation means operable to direct the terminal apparatus to return a useless one of the data stored in the first memory means to the information service center;
a second memory means for storing an information of reproducing frequency of each of individual data stored in the first memory means; and
a transmitting means for transmitting an information on the return of the useless one. of the data stored in the first memory means, that the operation means has been used to return to the information service center; and
the data server comprising:
an authenticating means for authenticating the terminal apparatus connected to the information service center;
a receiving means for receiving an information transmitted from the terminal apparatus authenticated by the authenticating means and which is related to the return of a useless data in the terminal apparatus; and
an accounting means for accounting a new data purchased subsequently by the terminal apparatus from the information service center by discounting for the returned useless data or charging nothing for the next purchased data based on an equivalent exchange rate calculated from the information received by the receiving means and related to the return of the useless data in the terminal apparatus.
The above object can also been attained by providing a transmitting system having a data server and at least one of terminal apparatuses,
the terminal apparatus comprising:
a receiving means for receiving a data served from the information service center;
a first memory means for storing the data received by the receiving means;
an operation means operable to direct the terminal apparatus to return a useless one of the data stored in the first memory means to the information service center;
a second memory means for storing an information of reproducing frequency of each of individual data stored in the first memory means;
a calculation means for calculating an equivalent exchange rate based on the useless data stored in the first memory means and which has been returned to the information service center from the terminal apparatus directed to do so by means of the operation means; and
a transmitting means for transmitting the equivalent exchange rate calculated by the calculation means to the information service center; and
the data server comprising:
an authenticating means for authenticating the terminal apparatus connected to the information service center;
a receiving means for receiving an equivalent exchange rate for the useless data stored in the terminal apparatus authenticated by the authenticating means and which is transmitted from the terminal apparatus; and
an accounting means for accounting a new data purchased subsequently by the terminal apparatus from the information service center through calculation by discounting for the returned useless data or charging nothing for the next purchased data based on the equivalent exchange rate received by the receiving means.
The above object can also be attained by providing a transmitting method of storing in a terminal apparatus once a data served from an information service center, and returning a useless one of the data stored in the terminal apparatus to the information service center, comprising the steps of:
designating the useless data in a memory means in the terminal apparatus;
deleting the designated data;
calculating an equivalent exchange rate for the deleted useless data; and
discounting for the deleted useless data or charging nothing for the next new served data based on the calculated equivalent exchange rate.